Monday, 1 August 2011

CHRISTIANITY VS HINDUISM

THE REALITY BEYOND FORM:
CHRISTIANISED IMAGES OF THE SUPREME

By Durgadas

Although Hinduism has many thousands of years of traditions and various views of the Supreme Reality that today is loosely termed as “God”, this image has somewhat been Christianised by many modern Indian Swamis and Gurus, which reverses the actual image of the reality of “Godhead” itself in traditional Hinduism.

Whilst the teachings of many Hindu teachers to the West such as Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda etc. appealed to the minds of many white Western previously Christian minds, the reality remains that the Hindu God was somewhat “Christianised” to a degree where even today, he stands more as the “God the Father” image, the old man with the beard of the Bible, rather than the true transcendental figure represented in Hindu texts.

Whilst mainly innocent on the part of these Hindu Swamis make Western audiences take up the traditional Hindu texts such as the Bhagwad Gita (a simplistic text that could be explained to them as the “Hindu Bible”), and introduce Yogic and symbolic concepts that would easily correlate to Western minds and Biblical passages, the damage done was one that many New-Agers and Western Hindus began to cultivate a bias towards the Hindu God as a somewhat Christianised image of his true characteristics which, although explained by these Hindu gurus, was forgotten or ignored by their followers.

We see for example how Gurus such as Paramhansa Yoganand and Sivananda liberally use Biblical verses, passages and quotes to sustain various views in Yogic philosophies and also in Advaita Vedanta or Hindu Non-Dualism, which ultimately fails in the eyes of their devotees, who take this in a more literalised, Christianised naive view of their Gurus.

The next issue was that the Hindu God, pervading all, being in all and assuming all forms and being the inner soul of all beings was perceived in this higher symbolic state in the realm of intellectualism by Western neophytes also, who would thus ignore Hindu texts, traditional views and values over their Christianised views of which they grew up with, and if corrected, challenged etc. would use the “All is One so I am right” issue, whilst clearly attacking Hindu views and traditional views.

Such an example can be seen amongst modern-day Yoga teachers, who profess themselves as “Hatha-Yoga” (typical system of Yoga including breathing and Yoga posture exercises) teachers, but are largely unaware nor practice the greater limbs of karma yoga (yoga of action or service), bhakti-yoga (Yoga of devotion) or understand completely the Samkhya (cosmology) philosophy and system of which Yoga rests, not Vedanta the spiritual philosophy behind Yoga and Hinduism, let alone deeper systems as Tantra and have rarely heard of systems as Ayurveda or if so, know very little about them and argue these are a “not need to know” basis. Such ignorance itself rests within the psyche of the Christians and their Christian God, showing the Christianised image of the Hindu God by Hindu Swamis at fault in the first instance. Nor do they also see the importance of languages as Sanskrit, which is equivalent to Latin in the Western word.

It is also this Christian mindset that also has a Colonialist attitude to it, that Westerners must always be right and better scholars over the poor dark-skinned Indian Hindus who their ancestors subjugated. Forgetting of course the short history in which Britain itself has compared to India, nor the Roman influences that were the backbone of the British and European civilisations or to mention the various sciences passed via the Arabs and Romans into greater Europe originating in India in the pre-Christian eras into the Medieval Periods (as numerals, zero concept, astronomy, mathematics, medicine and surgery etc.).

We also see this attitude in Western Hindus who have troubles with accepting the greater span of the Hindu Yuga Cycles (world ages) with millions or years or the traditional antiquity of figures such as Krishna and the end of the Vedic period around 5,000 years ago, rather than the start of it!

According to Hindus for example, there have been 7 Manus or flood-figures such as Noah already, and there are another 7 to comes. As it is now in 2011, according to the Hindu texts, 29,813,113 years have passed since the first “Manu” or progenitor of humanity, Swayambhuva Manu.

To the challenge however, we find in more traditionalist schools coming to The West, such as ISKCON, a refreshingly Indian and Hindu taste of traditionalism, of both dates, of the complete system of texts as the Gita, Puranas (history texts) and also cultivation of the Sanskrit language, Hindu sciences as Vastu (Indian Feng Shui), Jyotish (Hindu Astrology), Ayurveda etc. as well as the ritualism that goes with it. The Christian God although equated with Vishnu-Krishna is also less frequently compared to him, and in a different manner.

Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj Hindu sect that arose in the 18^th Century as a challenge to Islam and Christianity also brought forward an Old-School Hindu ideology of God, and although formless, removed his more personal humanised aspects and made him more scientific as a concept, as reflected in the ancient Hindu Upanishads – the fathomless Brahman that is to be Realised through meditation and inner practices, not by mere outer displays of egoic or selfish devotion as we find often in Western faiths. Maharishi Dayanand also showed a more scientific and ecological side to Vedic rituals such as the Hawan or fire ritual, and a more psychological and karmic healing side to the samskaras or Hindu rituals of the Brahmana texts, along with their more allegorical stories and symbols, as of the Puranas also.

For the first time, he criticised in his book, Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) not only Jainism, Sikhism and aspects of Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam, quoting passages from the Bible and the Koran. He was a formidable opponent of the Christian Missionaries and Muslims alike, since he was the first to reveal the Hindu Weapon against these foolish people bent on world-domination by a fear-based and forceful domineering doctrine – for he showed that it was Logic alone that defeated them!

Perhaps then we can see with the Inquisitions of the Catholics amongst their other attacks on non-Christians and Pagans, as to the real reason behind them – since the Pagans, Witches etc. all used one thing the Christians despised and knew it would defeat them – Logic! If man has logic, then he can think for himself – and as any good Socialist Leader knows, it becomes dangerous for people to think for themselves, as they would also then challenge the Popes and God!

For it is the Christian logic to remain ignorant, throw logic out the window and replace any true wisdom with the ignorance that “humans alone need not have knowledge of this and that, as God alone knows and we are not meant to”.

So true to them – as this shows with Islam and Christianity alike, why any wisdoms or sciences they did receive before completely banning science altogether and burning higher institutions of learning and Hindu Universities* such as Nalanda in India (founded c.500bce) were derived from India in the first place. When India’s wisdom was destroyed and smothered by the Muslims in the 12^th-16^th Centuries and the Catholic Church also smothered sciences in the West, so did they plunge the world into dark ages.

[*We look at the Buddha who grew up in current day Bihar of India and in Nepal (then all part of ancient India), who studied at the University of Kapilavastu, dating back to at least 800bce. Unlike Christians however, Buddhists revered these older Hindu Universities and did not destroy them, but rather studied under Hindu as well as their own Monks in such Universities.]

By now of course, we are asking ourselves the question of What God are these Christian people really worshipping? As certainly, it seems more like the Shaitan they talk about and devote more of their time and efforts towards cultivating than any true loving entity that even created the world at any time!

My personal view is that if Islam and Christianity forgot about the Shaitan (Satan), they would be much better devotees of their God, and also serve fellow human beings and other creatures better also under the cosmic law of nature. For otherwise, it seems that they continue to live in a day-dream world where anything their faith disagrees with is the work of the mythic Shaitan figure alone, and must be destroyed by violence, which apparently is “God’s plan”...which of course contradicts their views as we mentioned earlier that also according to these faiths, things are for God alone to know, not humans (except, it seems, violence in his name, or rather, as an excuse for perverse behavior amongst his ‘beloved few’).

We can thus see the background of many Western Hindus who take up half-hearted Hinduism fueled by the kind words about Christianity by well-meaning Hindu Swamis mentioned before. What happens is simply that this psychological and social Christianised stigma and dogma does not leave them, but rather enters into Hinduism in this new route, under another guise – arrogance.

Unlike Islam and Christianity however – and unbeknownst to these New Western Hindus, Hinduism has had a long history of non-violence, vegetarianism and kindness to all beings, as also giving shelter to the many Zoroastrians and Jews that were persecuted in their own lands at the hands of Muslims and Christians.

Along with this is the linchpin of the Hindu tolerance scale – that Hinduism accepts, nay, promotes religious debates and discussions through intellect, not violence and wars!

As far back as the Hindu Upanishads, Hindu Rishis or Seers challenged one another over the interpretation of texts from various viewpoints. Rishi Yagyavalkya is a well-known Seer who challenged the orthodox of his day, as also was Krishna (c.3200bce) and Shankaracharya (c.500BCE) and other saints as Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya and Chaitanya the Vaishnava saints.

Yet, there are no religious wars over the differences, but philosophical debates over differences alone, of which each walks away from the other with a feeling of friendliness and goes about his business. This is why Jainism and Buddhism, although having their birth in Hindu India also survived along with it, grew with it, and also why they were greatly brought back into the Hindu fold again also, without violence.

As the Chinese Philosopher Hu Shih aptly put it with regards to Indian Buddhists and Indian influences into China:

“India Conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”

We also see similar trends with Hindu Gurus and Swamis and movements today (again, notably ISKCON), which peacefully have attracted many Western and other adherents into the Hindu fold without a fear-based philosophy or one of violence, but by their mere presence, open views and ashrams (monasteries) and monks alone, as they have had for over 2,000 years in south Asia, Arabia, south-east Asia and the far east of Asia.

We thus see a rather different attitude of the Hindus to Western faiths and their adherents.

This is because Hinduism doesn’t have a one prophet and one book philosophy. It also has various views on Godhead, of which all agree that the Supreme pervades all and is localised in all beings as the Atman (soul), seen as identical to the Supreme and to others seen as sparks to a fire as to his relationship.

In traditional Non-Dualistic or Advaita Vedanta, represented in the most ancient texts as the Rig Veda, we see that there is a One Truth (Ekam Sad), who alone has many names or forms, but remains One Alone.

This allows for a Unity within Diversity. Most Hindus know that the Supreme is really a “Formless Absolute” and that his God or Goddess, whether it be the elephant-headed Ganesh representing the wisdom of the Supreme; the Goddess representing creation and power or the Yogi-God Shiva – all these are but aspects, personifications and localised forms of the One Truth alone that exists, that is identical to our own inner being also.

Life itself is not eternal, nor is heaven nor hell, which are but temporal higher and lower states of the Soul’s journey before ultimate release or liberation (moksha), where the soul remembers it’s own true reality as one with the Supreme Godhead itself. Life itself and the cycle of samsara (reincarnation) is but a dream or a play (leela) – a cosmic drama alone in a temporal world of illusion (maya, the soul’s unconscious state to it’s true reality as Godhead or Brahman due to avidya or ignorance).

The great Monist Shankaracharya around 2500 years ago writes about this in his Vivekachudamani:

“Identifying the Self with this non-Self – this is the bondage of man, which is due to his ignorance, and brings in its train the miseries of birth and death. It is through this that one considers this evanescent body as real, and identifying oneself with it, nourishes, bathes, and preserves it by means of sense-objects, by which he becomes bound as the caterpillar by the threads of its cocoon” (Vivekachudamani, 137).

He further elaborates (verses 387-388):

“That in which something is imagined to exist through error is, when rightly discriminated, that thing itself, and not distinct from it. When the error is gone, the reality about the snake falsely perceived becomes the rope. Similarly the Universe is in reality the Atman (Self, Soul).

“The Self is Brahma (Creator), the Self is Vishnu (Preserver), the Self is Indra (Lord of Gods), the Self is Shiva (Destroyer); the Self is all this universe. Nothing exists except the Self.”

Perhaps it is also this concept of a Self-God, along with personal karma and personal liberation that makes Hindus responsible for their own actions and ultimate release that differs so greatly from the Western traditions, especially Christianity, which seeks to do some kind of karmic reflection process or karmic and responsibility transfer for their actions, which makes them act in ways that do not operate according to the organic philosophies of the world, or in the sane man’s mind!

Although Hindus may ask for guidance and help from the Deity, which is one with his own inner being – he does so in order to gain an ultimate higher wisdom and understanding of his own Self-being towards liberation and also to transcend the base sensory pleasures that cause bondage to his human condition.

Prayers by Christians and Muslims however, seem more primitive and seemingly ironically Paganistic in tone, asking for wealth, health and power over their neighbours as opposed to any true universal release from suffering, nor personal advancement of better qualities. In short, their religion is nothing but one of self-preservation, ego and vanity.

It is one of blame upon others and mythic creatures such as the Shaitan, and imaginary ideals of forgiveness of their bad deeds by some Saviour. It thus shows there is no wisdom or personal responsibility being taught in these faiths. And in the end, they expect to be rewarded by eternal life in some Heaven, which to Hindus would at best be a temporal state from which the soul is reborn eventually and undergoes the typical suffering and bondage again.

I guess it is no wonder then, that in their frustration of bondage, they lash out at organic faiths and the true religions as Sikhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, which teach about cause and effect and personal responsibility as also personal responsibility for Liberation also, since they will not want to face up to the Truth, it being beyond their comprehension.

It can hence be said then, that the Christian converts to Hinduism need not plaster the gloss of their philosophies on the covers of Hinduism, but rather it would be better advice for them to either remain in their desperate positions of their narrow faiths or rather, to make a complete commitment – leave behind their Bible, ideas of sin, saviours and devils at the door, and enter Hinduism, with the openness and freshness of mind that is expected of one learning a foreign science as a novice during their first Lecture.

That way it would be much more productive in the long run for both the new devotee and their Hindu faith, and thus create also a seemingly longer-lasting and more cordial relationship between themselves and their new Hindu faith, as also between other traditional members of Hinduism, extending to the several hundreds of millions of Hindus throughout the world also.

Sunday, 24 July 2011

World's Oldest Writing Found

Sci/Tech

'Earliest writing' found

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/334517.stm

The fragments of pottery are about 5,500 years old

Exclusive by BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse

The first known examples of writing may have been unearthed at an archaeological dig in Pakistan.
So-called 'plant-like' and 'trident-shaped' markings have been found on fragments of pottery dating back 5500 years.


Dr Richard Meadow of Harvard University: "We may be able to follow the history of signs."

They were found at a site called Harappa in the region where the great Harappan or Indus civilisation flourished four and a half thousand years ago.
Harappa was originally a small settlement in 3500 BC but by 2600 BC it had developed into a major urban centre.

Harappa was occupied until about 1900 BC

The earliest known writing was etched onto jars before and after firing. Experts believe they may have indicated the contents of the jar or be signs associated with a deity.
According to Dr Richard Meadow of Harvard University, the director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project, these primitive inscriptions found on pottery may pre-date all other known writing.
Last year it was suggested that the oldest writing might have come from Egypt.
Clay tablets containing primitive words were uncovered in southern Egypt at the tomb of a king named Scorpion.
They were carbon-dated to 3300-3200 BC. This is about the same time, or slightly earlier, to the primitive writing developed by the Sumerians of the Mesopotamian civilisation around 3100 BC.
"It's a big question as to if we can call what we have found true writing," he told BBC News Online, "but we have found symbols that have similarities to what became Indus script.

Work at Harappa is likely to fuel the debate on early writing

"One of our research aims is to find more examples of these ancient symbols and follow them as they changed and became a writing system," he added.
One major problem in determining what the symbols mean is that no one understands the Indus language. It was unique and is now dead.
Dr Meadow points out that nothing similar to the 'Rosetta Stone' exists for the Harappan text.
The Rosetta Stone, housed in the British museum since 1802, is a large slab of black basalt uniquely inscribed with the same text in both Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek.
Its discovery allowed researchers to decipher the ancient Egyptian script for the first time.
The Harappan language died out and did not form the basis of other languages.


Dr Meadow: "The earliest inscriptions date back to 3500 BC."

"So probably we will never know what the symbols mean," Dr Meadow told BBC News Online from Harappa.
What historians know of the Harappan civilisation makes them unique. Their society did not like great differences between social classes or the display of wealth by rulers. They did not leave behind large monuments or rich graves.
They appear to be a peaceful people who displayed their art in smaller works of stone.
Their society seems to have petered out. Around 1900 BC Harappa and other urban centres started to decline as people left them to move east to what is now India and the Ganges.
This discovery will add to the debate about the origins of the written word.
It probably suggests that writing developed independently in at least three places - Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa between 3500 BC and 3100 BC.

Ayurveda Article: Planets and Herbs

Planets and the use of Herbs

Along with the planets and the days they rule, one can also empower various herbs that relate to the planets and their various organs they relate to.

This is generic however, and we introduce the mantras here to help you energise the herbs also. Doing the mantra of the Planet of the Day and over the herbs can help strengthen weak organs.

Note that these herbs here increase the energies they relate not.

Surya (Sun)
Day of the week: Sunday
Mantra: OM HRAAM HREEM HROWM SOORYAAYA NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Heart, Willpower

Herbs: Herbs and Tonics for the Heart can be used, especially Arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), which is considered Ayurveda’s “Heart Tonic” herb. Arjunarishta – Ayurvedic herbal wine containing Ayurveda is good here.

For will-power and strengthening the heart, one can invoke the powers of the Sun on Sunday. One can also pray to the Divine Incarnation of the Sun, Sri Rama, the hero of the Indian Epic Ramayana. You can purchase this Book, the Ramayana and read more about Rama here, as he helps to strengthen our deepest recesses of the heart – that of the innermost Self-Soul being (Atman).

Soma (Moon)
Day of the week: Monday
Mantra: OM SHRAAM SHREEM SHROWM SOMAAYA NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Mind, Lungs

Herbs: Herbs that help calm the mind, lungs etc. such as Shatavari (Asparagus recemosus) are good. Shatavari is also the female “ginsing” and helps in all such problems. Kumari (Aloe Vera) is also good for the same.

Monday and Moon’s energies are good for awakening the calm, feminine energies and are good for reducing Pitta in the body and the mind (as in anger, agitation etc.). It is also good for Gynaecological issues and insomnia, and helps lubricate the limbs, stomach and chest. It is not good for high Kapha conditions of cold, flu and congestion or swelling, however.

Mangal (Mars)
Day of the week: Tuesday
Mantra: OM KRAAM KREEM KROWM KUJAAYA NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Blood, Increases Digestive Fire

Herbs: Pungent herbs here help, that are good for circulation and blood-flow, as well as digestive fire. These include Ayurvedic formulas as Hingwashtak Churna (For Vata) and Trikatu (Three Bitters) for Kapha. Herbs as Cardamom, Cinnamon, Mustard etc. are also good here as circulatory / digestive stimulants.

For low digestive powers and low circulation in Kapha and vata types, these practices can help them on Tuesdays to awaken their Pitta or fiery energies, and also give them more drive and stimulate their lives into action! It also awakens their discrimination (vivek) and buddhi (intellect) at deeper levels.

Budha (Mercury)
Day of the week: Wednesday
Mantra: OM BRAAM BREEM BROWM BUDHAAYA NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Nervous system, Skin, Intellect

Herbs: Herbs that help with the nervous system and skin are good here, such as Jatamamsi (Nardostachys jatamamsi) for calming the nerves. It is the best sedative for the nerves. Brahmi (Barcopa monnieri) for the skin and especially the intellect, as it promotes wisdom, memory etc. Aloe Vera (Kumari) is also good for the skin, helping to reduce inflammations and skin diseases.

Memory and nervous system conditions can hence be helped on Wednesdays, as also skin disorders. However, as Mercury rules the Health-sign of Virgo, invoking Mercury’s energies can be good for everyone for overall health, especially of Virgo and Mercury is afflicted.

Brihaspati (Jupiter)
Day of the week: Thursday
Mantra: OM GRAAM GREEM GROWM GURUVE NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Ojas (Vigour), Strength

Herbs: Tonic herbs such as Bala (Sida cordifolia) and Ashwagandha (Withiania somnifera) are best, as they are Kapha-increasing Herbs, that help with bulking up the body and giving strength. Ashwagandha-Avaleha is a good formula, the confection form using Ashwagandha and other herbs, as also Chyavan Prash, using Amlaki (Indian gooseberry).

One can hence increase their overall strength, especially for Vata peoples, on Thursdays, invoking the energy of Divine Jupiter, who gives us strength (bala).

Shukra (Venus)
Day of the week: Friday
Mantra: OM DRAAM DREEM DROWM SHUKRAAYA NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Reproductive System, Semen

Herbs: Tonic herbs for the Sexual reproductive system and also the Semen include those for the Moon, such as Shatavari (Asparagus recemosus), as well as Ashwagandha (Withiania somnifera), especially combined together, for males and females. Kapikacchu (Mucuna pruriens) is also a special aphrodisiac, however pungent aphrodisciacs such as Garlic can also be used.

Sexual energies can hence be increased on Fridays, with Venus’s energies.

Shani (Saturn)
Day of the week: Saturday
Mantra: OM PRAAM PREEM PROWM SHANAYE NAMAHA!
Organs strengthened: Increases Vata or Wind in the body

Herbs: These herbs can be used in cases of High Kapha (phlegm) and especially, they are blood-cleansing and help with high-Pitta, being infections, inflammations and also high bile. They can constipate for Vata however, except a few. Formulas include Triphala Churna, an Ayurvedic formula for cleansing the doshas from the skin, lungs, kidneys and small intestine, but is also good for Vata also for removing excess Vata in the colon. Bitter and Astringent herbs for Pitta such as Aloe Vera, Amalaki (Emblica officinalis) are especially good here for removing High Pitta or bile and awaken Saturnian energies.

Cleansing Pitta-reducing practices, such as Therapeutic Purgation (Virechana) are hence best done on Saturdays, involving Saturn’s cleansing (Shodhana) energies.

Ayurveda Article: Symptoms of Aggravated Doshas

Symptoms of Aggravated Doshas:

Although we will examine the imbalances of the doshas in the bodu later on, it is helpful here, since we have discussed the importance of Vata dosha, to note about the imbalances of the doshas or biological humors, using some simple yet common symptoms that each manifest.

This is called Dosha-Vriddhi, meaning the imbalances or aggravation of the biological humors.

Vata, when imbalanced, exhibits symptoms such as:
Emaciation, blood discolouration, desire for hot things, distension in the stomach, constipation, loss of strength, tiredness, sensory functions become disturbed. One will also talk mindlessly and there will be giddiness.

Pitta, when having in imbalance, exhibits symptoms as:
Yellowish discolouration of faeces, urine, eyes and skin. There will be excess hunger, thirst and burning sensations and one will get little sleep.

Kapha, when aggravated or imbalanced, exhibits symptoms as:
Debility of the digestive system, excess salivation, feelings of heaviness, white discolouration of the skin and faeces, coldness, looseness of the limbs, difficulty in breathing, cough and excess sleep.

It is important to note these imbalances and their types. Once we understand these natures of the dosha in general, we have enough information to understand how they relate to the rest of the systems in Ayurveda – starting with foods and tastes.

Ayurvedic Article: Importance of Vata Dosha

The Importance of Vata Dosha

The ancient Ayurvedic physician Vagbhata stated that Pitta and Kapha dosha, as well as the bodily tissues (dhatus) and waste products (malas) cannot move themselves, as only Vata has movement (gati). Vata also brings food into and out of the body, representing movement also.

There is also a famous saying in the ancient Ayurvedic text, Sushruta Samhita (Sutrasthana, 21):

“Tatra va gati gandha na yo iti vayu” – meaning that “Va” means gati (movement) and that “Ta” means one who controls – thus Vata is the controller of movement.

Basically, when Pitta and Kapha get disturbed, it can happen only due to Vata getting disturbed, as Vata alone moves them. Without Vata, there is no movement of Pitta or Kapha, and hence Vata controls as well as disturbs the other doshas, in deficiency and in excess.

Thus, in Ayurvedic therapy, Vata is the most important factor. In fact, Vata is responsible for most diseases in Ayurveda itself; It is said that 80 diseases are of Vata; 40 of Pitta and 20 of Kapha on this note.

The ancient Charaka Samhita (Sutrasthana, 12.8) also states:

“Vayu yantra tantra dhara pravartak” – or that Vata or Vayu (wind) controls all the functions of the body itself. It controls the mind and body, thus, any disruptions hence come from Vata.

In the treatment of Vata, many factors are considered, such as reducing vata by diet, lifestyle, oleation therapy (snehana) and also basti (enemas), which are all methods to help reduce Vata dosha.

Hence, Vata has an important place in Ayurveda and in Ayurvedic Healing itself.

In today’s world, we live in a “Vata world” – meaning things that agitate the mind through Vata-provoking emotions. The media feeds us mass hysteria, fears and fuels anxieties and depressions in people, causing excess worry and self-examination from a negative perspective.

I also realised this when I first began treating people with Ayurveda – that everyone, somewhere, suffered from Vata problems – whether it be rheumatic, mental / psychological or otherwise.

Ayurvedic doctors (Vaidyas) in India will also tell you that treating Vata is the key to Ayurvedic treatment, as when you treat Vata, everything else falls into place. It is also quite simple, when we think about this principle ourselves also.

Consider that someone has accumulation of Kapha in the joints (excess Shleshaka Kapha, responsible for joint lubrication), and it causes congestion and swelling in the joints. We can easily detect this is due to deficient Vyana-Vayu, the sub-form of Vata dosha that is responsible for circulation, and thus, as circulation is not occurring in the body. Hence, we need to increase Vyana-vayu, the circulating form of Vata.

We must remember that Vata moves the other doshas, and hence also moves the accumulation of doshas from their sites of accumulation to their new sites, where they cause trouble.

People in Old Age (65+) also suffer from Vata problems, primarily because this is considered the “Vata stage” of life. Hyperactive activity also causes Vata imbalances, as do accidents.

Other factors include excessive working, reading loudly, singing, laughing, chronic illness, blood loss, smoking, falling, skipping meals, upper-body and mental shock, fasting, waking during the night, carrying heavy weights, horse-riding, fear. Anxiety, loneliness, worry, grief, intake of dry, light, cold foods as well as dry climates, rainy season and as we have already mentioned, old age, are all factors that disturb Vata.

So basically – most things that we, as humans do, causes Vata problems!

Indian Art and Spirituality: Art and Representation in Hindusim

THE BACKGROUND VIEW OF ART AND REPRESENTATION:

The world’s academia, especially many Indologists or those who study Indian Culture and Civilisation, Languages etc. have come from largely European backgrounds with Christian traditions dominating their psyche, and hence the art of the ancient world, and especially that of India, has been viewed as firstly through a Christian bias and second, and secondly as largely being influence by the Greeks and Romans – which we note the European scholars are also reluctant to accept gained much of their culture themselves from the older Egyptians!

As such, even in the modern era, with many western Yoga teachers, Historians and those sympathetic to Indian religions and culture – there is some tendency to become inflated with their Euroccentricism and dominate the traditional views of things such as Deities, Chakras, Tantra and especially Art and Form.

Had we had Hindu or Jain Indians however writing the History of Europe and European Art, we might see the Greeks and Romans as deriving their styles and representations from the Egyptians, Persians and Hindus, as opposed to influencing others, and we might see that their view on naked art forms and spirituality gains a more liberalised and open approach, not such as closed one as we find in history books coming from the West today.

We must remember however that much of what we have in the West today came from the East – from China and India via the Persians and later the Arabs, as also the Egyptians into the Greco-Roman world. This includes Cotton and Silk garments, dyes, medical and spiritual knowledge or philosophy, mathematics – especially our numeral system, various spices and condiments (pepper and sugar being the most common), as also a variety of occult traditions as tarot cards, palm reading, dress styles and dance through the Gypsies who were tribes from North-Western India settling in both the Middle East and Europe.

As early as 600BCE, perhaps earlier, at Takshashila University in today’s Afghanistan, was an ancient Hindu seat of learning that attracted students from afar as China, Persia and also Greece and Rome, learning mathematics, medicine, art and architecture etc. – which undoubtedly had it’s origin in the older Indus Valley cultures several millennia earlier – where large polished pillars, amphitheatres and fine art resembling the Hellenic has been found dating back as far as 3000-2500BCE, long before these cultures.

Their mathematics was also advanced, they used rulers, knew of Pythagoras theorem and constructed grid-like cities with intricate and advanced sewer systems and city planning, as well as having sit-down toilets, running water and bathrooms in every home, not unlike today’s modern Indian houses.

The art of this culture dates as far back as Mehrgarh around 7000BCE, and even older representation in the older Central Indian cave paintings of Bhimbekta dating back some 30,000 years or more. Thus, the Indian Art traditions are some of the oldest on the planet, and those at Mehrgarh show many goddesses with full nude breasts exposed, representing a tradition that is still popular in India, nearly some 10,000 years later in Art form.

But, what does this Art really signify? Many have stated it to represent some fertility cult or goddess, but they do not explain the spiritual side of it. We find such representations throughout the ancient world, and it appears to have originated in the Indus cities and culture of India in Vedic times – but again, the enigma remains surrounding their deeper meaning and symbolism.

Here however, is an attempt to explain these symbols and the higher spiritual meanings and also origin of the naked art, as it was part of society back then as it is today.

Hopefully, one will gain a deeper appreciation for the representation in Art, especially the older nude sculptures often deemed as “primitive”, and see the greater symbolic representations that lie within them, and not be embarrassed about them, but rather appreciate their deeper symbolic and spiritual messages!

THE NAKED FORM AND INDIAN SPIRITUALITY:

In ancient cultures, especially in India, we see the naked form which conflicts with our conservative modern-day British society and culture, which places many boundaries upon how we look, act, speak and even dress.

Hence, many scholars, including Indians today, shunned into corners by centuries of social and religious conservatism by Islam and later Christianity are shy of their ancient heritage, especially the semi-nude sculptures we see of females in the art of ancient India, often depicted as either nude or showing their breasts.

Of course, this was common in many ancient cultures, although in India we find rather large full breasts in the sculptures of the Goddess, representing the same nourishing force as the sacred Cow does in India – supplying us with the motherly spirit of milk and birth. Similarly, Hinduism has sculptures depicting death also – severed heads also held by gods and goddesses, signifying both the spiritual death of the ego and also the physical death of the body also, opposed to birth, in the cosmic cycle of reincarnation (samsara).

Thus, in the Ajanta cave paintings, the ancient Indus Valley sculptures etc. we see full breasts depicted on Goddesses, whilst males often wear an upper garment of shawl. Older women are seen to be wearing the full Sari or upper garments, as also are attendants and servants in the Courts, as they are seen as not as powerful as the Queens and Goddesses, who’s full bare breasts represent their powers of sustenance of Kingdoms, Power (Shakti) and Birth / Mother Nature itself – like the Cow. It is somewhat a social stigma.

It also goes beyond this also. Hinduism depicts many deities – especially those representing Transformation and Liberation from the cycle of rebirth and karma, such as the wrathful Goddess Kali and the Yogi-deity Shiva, as nude in sculptures and paintings etc. This however forms another degree of Hindu spirituality interwoven in art.

The naked form represents the Self or the Soul (Atman), of which clothes can be compared to the physical body (sthula sharira), which is a gross and material form and existence. Whereas the former naked Self is eternal and unchanging and non-decaying – the latter, the physical body is of temporal existence, changing and subject to death and decay.

The naked body also represents what we come into the world with, and what we go out with. It signifies non-attachment to possessions – even clothes on this material plane of existence, and signifies the liberated Self, free from all boundaries, bodies and free to move about as it pleases. It represents the unbound Self.

Many spiritual orders of India – especially the “Digambara” or Sky-Clad Monks in India thus go about naked, as do many other Shaiva orders – devotees of the Yogi-God Shiva, such as the Naga (serpent) renunciates, called Sadhus, who grow long beards, dreaded hair and roam about naked, like their God Shiva, representing the bliss of liberation (of possessions, such as clothes etc., and ultimately the physical body itself. Being like a garment).

The Jains especially, an offshoot of Hinduism similar to Buddhism, have their naked orders, and the Jain Saints, called Tirthankaras are always depicted as naked also for representing a similar purpose – beyond all material attachments, engagements and representing the Cosmic Truth as being formless. The “Bare Truth” so to speak.

Thus, in Hinduism, naked art is somewhat a more Spiritual culture, as we often see in other cultures also – often angels in the Western traditions of the Greeks and Romans are depicted as nude also, representing also the primal innocence of the unborn and un-manifest Self-being, that is unaware of it’s naked existence, as it has not succumbed to the human or social conditioning of material existence, that it requires any “outer garb” or even form as such.

This is perhaps why some ancient religions as Islam and Judaism rejected giving their God such a form at all, since the Supreme Deity, as in India, was primarily Spirit and Consciousness, which could exist without form altogether, although for the purpose of man and worship, was in nations as India, Egypt etc. given form, so as given attributes, names etc. so it could be comprehended by the limited human mind.

Hence in India, the representation of Naked Gods was indeed closer to the Truth, and also gave the Godhead something “Human” about them at the same time.

India also appears to have amongst the oldest representations of fine art in the ancient world, from the Indus Valley around 3000BCE onwards, with various figures as the “Priest King”, the “Red Sandstone Bust” and the nude “Dancing Girl” as well as earlier Goddesses from Mehrgarh around 5000BCE, with her full breasts. The former mentioned are as fine as the later Greek sculptures over a thousand years later, and comparable with later sculptures found at Gandhara in present-day Afghanistan, a famous area of East-West contact in later times.

We also see the full-breasts, often rather over-pronounced, like the full Cow’s udder representing the same idea of nourishment, plenty and motherhood in the early Mauryan sculptures of the Yakshinis (Buddhist tree goddesses of wealth) around 300BCE. The earth itself in Vedic lore is the Cow, and thus to be protected similarly. The earth is thus always depicted with full bare breasts.

Ghee, clarified butter is also an important concept in Hinduism, both for healing and cooking, as also the use of cow’s urine and manure, which are both antiseptic and also have a variety of household uses in India, as also cow patties are sacrificed in the Hawan or fire ceremonies in Hinduism also for purifying the air and atmosphere. As such, the Cow’s sacred nature can be understood, especially when personified into a human form – the breasts must be shown, representing her fullness and nourishing and giving nature, as well as the milk she provides, from which the ghee or clarified butter (also used in fire sacrifices as a main component) comes, as also buttermilk, curd etc. which are also nutritious in value and useful to humans.

We also see this in the Egyptian Mother-Goddess Isis, to the Indian Devaki, the mother of Krishna, who suckle the young Kings, giving the idea of motherhood, and equating them with the higher Divine Powers of both the Mother Earth and the Great Cosmic Goddess or female principle itself – Shakti (Power), which may have a cognate in Judaism’s feminine aspect of God – Shekhinah.

Thus, such naked art forms and also social norms in the ancient world, especially the bare breasts in ancient cultures outside of India as Egypt, Rome, Greece etc. seem to have derived these from India, as also their diagonally-drapes from the Sari.

Likewise, just as we noted that angels are depicted naked, as also Gods, we see children always were in ancient cultures also – not just as a cultural norm, but like toplessness, the divine origin of the naked form represents the young naked child as the unborn primeval Self-Sprit beyond the world itself, as we discussed is seen in naked deities as Yogi Gods Shiva and his wife Kali. It is also a metaphor for the Supreme Reality / Godhead being the “Naked Truth”, that which is without any attachments.

When we are naked, we also realise that our clothing is but a decoration, as often our ego can get carried away by the labels and clothes that we wear – which is especially true of the modern label-society in which we live. When we are naked, we all become equals, there is no superior among us.

So also, on a spiritual level, it helps us get in touch with the idea of removing outer attachments as also the idea that “we are not the body” but rather the Formless Self – just as when we remove out clothes we become “mere humans” – a form merely dressed up, as it were, to look better for outer social displays of ego and prestige. The naked form removes all such connotations on both physical-social and spiritual levels and helps us better contemplate our true inner being as similar – that our own bodies, our own forms are likewise just like clothes – they are not our true realities, nor even out true personalities!

It is like the old saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover!”.

The lessons of ancient culture and art forms can hence tell our modern society alot – not that we have to adopt naturism as a social norm, but rather honour and respect the deeper Self that was hinted at in the older art forms of the ancient world, especially India, and our return to the Earth and honouring Nature itself, as also questioning our own appearance and who and what we really are, not merely how we look and dress, which are but outer temporal material coverings.

By doing this, we can give up our outer attachments and addictions of the ego, and learn to live in nature, not against it, but as a part of it, and also as a being of Pure Consciousness and Awareness, without any forms, clothes or even names!

Such thinking alone shall give us hope towards eventual liberation of our Soul.

OM TAT SAT.

HISTORY ARTICLES: Western Scholars and Indus Cities

WESTERN SCHOLARS AND INDUS CITIES:
ALL THE CLUES AND YET NO CONCLUSION

By Durgadas (Rodney Lingham)

Out of India not Into India:

It is well known that the decipherment of the Indus Valley script as Brahmi by NS Rajaram and N.Jha has been rejected by many western scholars and expounders of the AIT (Aryan Invasion Theory).

However, there are a few questions that need to be raised towards such scholars:

1. If Sumeria and Egypt traded with the Indus cities, and one can trace the history of later Middle Eastern cultures to these, as also the Phoenician, without any historical records from these, where are their writings saying the peoples of the Indus Valley disappeared or adopted a later Phoenician script?

2. Our numerals came to Europe via the Arabs from India. Why not also our writing?

Mathematics in the Indus was very advanced for it’s age, and later Indian mathematics reflects this, as also Vedic culture, which made it’s way to the West via Romans, Greeks and Arabs from India (Takshashila University), itself reflective of the arts and sciences of the Indus culture some 2000-1500 years before it!

Recent dates have also shown Takshashila or Gandhara region (Afghanistan) to have ruins back to 2000BCE, marking it at the end of the Vedic or Indus period, thus it was a continuation¹.

Greeks, it should be noted also studied at Takshashila in Gandhara pre. Alexander also, and possibly took the art of Gandhara (dating back to Indus Valley times) with them to Greece, considering the early dates also.

Greeks such as Pythagoras looked to India, as Egypt as a source of Greece’s wisdom itself.

3. Indian Puranas or Historcal texts and oral history states that writing in India (modern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi) came from Goddess Saraswati (Brahmi) to them and is indigenous and continuous.

Now that the Saraswati River and the Indus have both been identified as rivers in the Indus-valley civilisation, isn’t it logical to assume that the language was Sanskrit and that later Indian scripts all derive from the Indus script – being from the Goddess Brahmi-Saraswati, the river-culture where the Indus script was found?

We also note the Greeks had more reliance on the Indian legends of the Puranas than their own, and the Puranas again speak of no invasion, nor do the Vedas.

Also,

(a) If Dravidians of the South preserve the older Indus Culture and continued with it, then why also are their scripts related to Brahmi and also related to the Indus according to scholars, when both are from the same root? This shows both Northern and Southern Indians came from the same Indus region historically.

(b) Moreover, Indus script symbols have been found in the Maldive Islands and also in some older caves as Edakkal Caves in Kerala around 2000bce ², showing contact with the Indus people and that colonies were contemporary in the south with the Indus, and thus a continuous culture emerged as also Dravidians were not “driven” from the North.

(c) Dravidians claim to be refugees from an older flooded culture dating back some 10,000 years or more off the coast of South-Western India that included Sri Lanka etc. called Kumari Kandam or Ila, and trace their lineage back to Vedic Rishi Agastya, who in Rig Veda along with the father of Vedic peoples, Manu, both are Dravidians who survived a flood in the older South-Western region of India, not as refugees from an invasion in North-Western India, it’s complete opposite direction!

Recent cities off the coast of Tamil Nadu have also shown that cities dating back as far as 7500BCE are also possible, and the 2004 Asian Tsunami also threw up ruins 1200 years earlier, attestsing to flood myths in the region as more than just ‘fishermen’s tales’4.

4. Indus seals reflect later cultural affinities with Hinduism as the OM symbol, Peepal leaf, Swastika, Cow etc. So why do these remain in Hinduism as in the days of the Indus, as also the Indus Architectural system (Vastu or Shilpa Shastra) and yet somehow writing didn’t continue?

Oral tradition also states the god Skanda, who is Vedic Agni the Fire and war God said in the Vedas to be speech (Vak) is said to have created the Tamil language, showing a common heritage of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. Another states that Shiva (Vedic Indra or Rudra) created both languages at the same time via his drum.

Vasishtha the brother of Rishi Agastya is also common in the Rig Veda and creates the famous mantra to Shiva in the text, called Mahamrityunjaya mantra. Perhaps he represented the Northern Peoples post-flood, whilst the peoples of Agastya remained in the South.

Either way, northern Indo-Aryans also trace their own origin to the southern Dravidian Kings like Manu and a flood culture where they then dwelt in the Himalayas and the Indus and Saraswati Rivers, so if anything invaded from Southern India as Dravidian stock, not from Central Asia!

They also went to the Himalayas since it was their sacred abode of their god Rudra-Shiva or Indra. Vedic Indra is also likewise associated not with Central Asia but with the Himalayas and Mt. Meru (Kailasha) as his sacred abode!

India is often lauded as the world’s oldest and most continuous culture, with the Vedas being chanted for several thousands of years.

Sanskrit is also the world’s oldest surviving language.

It thus becomes somewhat contradictory for such scholars to over-state these facts and yet deny India and it’s scriptures as having anything to do with the Indus Valley cities they clearly represent the culture of, or that their language is derived from the Indus cities as also their script, as their is the tradition of. Hindus also see themselves as indigenous to India itself, nowhere else, nor their language!

On the contrary, we have scanty historical records of the Greeks, Sumerians and Egyptians and yet scholars are happy to re-create their past without any solid historical facts and deny this with India, which has both oral, historical textual and a continuous tradition as also a continuity of art and archaeology to back it up.

Egyptians as is well-known state they came from the land of Punt for example, which lied to the East of Egypt.

Historically also, Indians have migrated out of India not into India, for example the Gypsies, who migrated to Persia, the Middle East and into Europe. Buddhist Monks were also sent to colonies in China, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Indonesia, Philippines etc. and also into ancient Greece and Alexandria.

It follows a similar model of Indian Swamis coming to the West today.

It should be remembered that Indian also suffered invasions of the Huns, Scythians, Greeks, Arabs and the Mughuls (Turks), and yet still never changed it’s population or DNA structure in this time, nor did it affect Hinduism – which is quite a feat, since other areas (Persia with it’s Zoroastrianism, the whole of the Middle East and Central Asia etc.) had their faiths destroyed.

India today remains a refuge for these people, with the greatest number of Parsis (Zoroastrains) in Mumbai. Jews also fled to India also and sought refuge under Hindu Rajas.

This shows that invasions do not shape Hinduism, or change history. Sanskrit remains the same, and Hindusthani remains a spoken language of Persian words, but still Shuddh Hindi (pure Hindi) using Sanskrit words, as also local dialects (Bhojpuri, Marathi etc.) remain less changed also – and such an invasion which took the nation by force and threatened Hinduism and destroyed their temples, still didn’t alter the faith of these people.

So, why would it be changed by a few (imaginary) nomadic invaders around 1500BCE, when the same symbols and values still survive? Hindus also have not adopted the Arabic script and still use Devanagari the sacred script for writing Sanskrit and Hindi, and it is still widely used as a national language (on signs, shops etc.) across India!

In fact, the Mughuls who derive from the older Buddhist peoples of Central Asia who got much of their culture from India (via Gandhara school of Art) , and the Arabs also, contributed nothing to India’s art and architecture, but rather borrowed from them their art, architecture, numerals, mathematics, medicines etc. and later destroyed these and the institutions they came from!

The Domes and Archways used on Mosques and Tombs by Muslims came from Buddhist Indian stupas and entranceways as seen as far back as Ashoka around 300BCE and on the many Gandhara ruins also, showing and reflection Indo-Parthian Architecture which reached it’s zenith in Gandhara and later under the Guptas.

So rather, Arabs visiting India as also Turks used these Indian designs as they used Indian inventions, medical texts and astronomical and mathematical texts, their dress (costumes) and numerals and claimed them also as their own!

It is known that Tamerlane for example, took tens of thousands of slaves from India (Hindus) to build his Capital at Samarkand. Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal is also known to have used a Hindu Shilpi (Architect) to design his Tomb and Hindu craftsmen to construct it.

Motifs on Islamic monuments in India to Central Asia also reflect Hindu and Buddhist motifs as the lotus leaf, peacock, peepal leaf, om-symbol etc. which also all date back to the Indus Valley seals, reflecting an ancient ironic connection here also, with regards to India’s influences outside of India.

Indian Cave art and primitive cultures also date back as early as 30,000 years ago in Bhimbetka Rock shelters in Central India, which also show symbols as late as the Gupta period around early periods AD, showing a continuity of art styles and cultures in this part of India, that itself remain interrupted between the pre-historical periods (Upper Palaeolithic) until the later medieval times of India. Ruins in Julsi, in Allahabad in India have also yielded cultures as old as 7100BCE in the region also³.

Traditional dates ignored:

One should also be aware that the older history of India also places the Aryan Kings and personalities further back than the Aryan Invasion Theory itself, and makes them contemporaries of and older than the Indus Valley cites.

Whilst we may not agree with all this evidence and these dates, it serves to show of a more traditional, organised, well-documented and older Indian timeline itself, thus showing there is no room (historically) for any Invasion or non-Indus connection.

Below’s tradition dates are supported by scholars as K.D. Sethna, Stephen Knapp and Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, Prasad Gokhale amongst others.

Krishna is historically placed anterior to 3102BCE, as also is the Mahabharata War.

His period marks the end of the Vedic period itself. His Capital at Dvaraka yields ruins dating back to around 1500BCE, but itself build on older layers going back to 3000BCE – and some offshore ruins in the Gulf of Cambay as early as 7500BCE, according to some as Graeme Hancock (Author of Underwater Series).

Dholavira at around 3000BCE also boasts a city with polished pillars and a stone city with a large water reservoir and also a large amphitheatre. Once again, like the Indus busts of men and art, it predates the Greek by 2000 years and yet resembles the later art of Gandhara, as also the cities there also, showing a continuom.

Dholavira resembles the description of Krishna’s Capital in the Mahabharata and the Puranas.

However even at 1500BCE, it shows Vedic peoples as the Yadavas were already well-established in this period. Dvaraka’s ruins also boast a script that is intermediate between the Indus script and Brahmi, cancelling the non-Brahmi and non-Vedic connections.

This shows even at 1500BCE, that Krishna was long after the Vedic Age, which would have been best represented by older Rishi Cultures along the Indus Valley river and Saraswati. If his city is Dholavira, it pushes them back earlier – to the ruins under the Gulf of Cambay and the Mehrgarh cities of Baluchistan.

Buddha is traditionally placed around 1800BCE. This shows him existing around the end of the Indus Valley cities or when Hinduism declined, as the Saraswati River dried up around 1900BCE.

However, Buddha studied at Kapilavastu, the University of the illustrious Kapila, who is mentioned by Krishna as being before him and the founder of Samkhya. If Buddha was confused with Kapila, it pushes back a date of say 1800BCE for Kapila and then 1500BCE for Krishna.

However, tradition all over India asserts the date of 3100BCE for Krishna which places Kapila much earlier, to the Indus culture, which is possible, that he was a teacher there and later established his capitals in Videha province where Buddha was from.

Yet Videha dates back to the King Nimi, an ancestor of the King Rama and his wife Sita. The Janaka Kings of Videha also feature in the Vedic Brahmanas and Upanishads as rulers of Videha, and the famous Yagyavalkya, who spoke on Yoga, Vedanta and Samkhya came from the region in the post Rig Vedic era.

This shows Videha as an extremely ancient area itself, and Kapila’s date even around pre-3000BCE is not out of the question, nor is Buddha’s traditional date.

Either way, both also show of ancient schools existing in India prior to 1500BCE (Krishna / Kapila), or even earlier, showing of again a continuous culture.

We should also note later Jains and Buddhists also created a Sanskrit dialect Pali at an earlier time – some scholars which place it as deriving from Vedic Sanskrit, showing various migrations of Indo-Aryan speakers were about since the earliest times. This is also not possible unless they were already in India thousands of years earlier.

Shankaracharya is historically placed around 500BCE, and there are records in India showing the lineages of Shankaracharyas of the past 2,500 years.

This places him before the Greeks.

The Greeks also mention worship of Krishna and Shiva, and mention a few Buddhist Monks, but mainly the Kings seemed Hindus, making them Gupta Kings not Mauryas, as Mauryas as per tradition were around 1500BCE (post Buddha) and the Guptas around 320BCE onwards (The Greek era of Alexander).

As noted also, the Greeks mentioning the Hindu spots as Krishnapura and Mathura for Krishna worship, and also carrying images of Krishna on the battlefield does not show these Kings were Jains or Buddhists, but Hindus – as Shankaracharya 200 years earlier dispelled Buddhism from India (although many Buddhist monasteries remained and others became more Hindu in approach, as we see with Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana and even Mahayana).

The problem with the traditional dates is that Western scholars have muddled up personalities in the Indian chronicles.

First is Adi Shankaracharya (500bce), confused with the later Abhinava Shankara (c.800AD), who’s life was similar to the former’s and was likewise a reformer of the Advanta Vedanta tradition.

Second is Chandragupta Maurya the Jain King (c.1500bce) confused with the later Channdragupta Gupta ( Greek Sandrocottus) c.320BCE), his predecessor being Chandramas (Greek Xandramas) and Samudragupta (Greek Sandrocyptus) his son, which are also etymologically more correct.

As noted, we also note these Hindu Kings at the time of the Greeks, not only in name, but also their worship of Krishna and Shiva over Buddha is more prominent in India due to Shankara’s previous influence, as Shankara’s chosen deity was Krishna in his homeland of Kerala, as also he was seen as both incarnation of, and a great devotee of Shiva also (of whom he commonly identified himself as one with).

In conclusion here, we see that there is an extensive ancient tradition in India that either way pre-dates any so-called invasion and instead shows a consistency with the traditional Indian culture.

Ashoka at around 1500BCE can also be evidenced by him using the “Pali-Brahmi” script, an adaptation of that found at Dwaraka at the same time. It is known Kings often changed and adapted scripts for their own religious purposes, and that Ashoka’s Brahmi was Buddhist (not Hindu).

Moreover, we note in Rajgir of a special (undeciphered) script used by one of the older Magadhan Kings, Bimbisara, which itself is a clear example of how Kings after the Buddha began using different scripts, and how many existed already at that time in history!

In Southern India also, Tamil Brahmi scripts have been found dating back to 800BCE, and also found along with skeletons indicating trade with south-east Asia at this period. This shows the script was already ancient in Tamil countries by this time and widely used, as the Indus was in these regions earlier.

It all also points to an older script, and a much older culture – both archeologically and also historically, showing of no mention of invasions into India nor any possible historical room for such an invasion, given these timelines.

Continuity of Indus Valley cities:

Along with scripts and Hinduism, we also note the dress styles of the Indus Valley peoples and later Hindus or Indians is very much the same.

Indus Valley sculptures and art show many varieties of braided hair, hair in ribbons, top-knot, various turbans, shawls (as those like later saris), jewellery covering breasts, drapes, dhotis (loincloths), headdresses of all shapes and types on Indus valley goddesses, sculptures and figurines which are exactly the same as the dress of later Hindus and as seen on later Hindu and Buddhist Art and sculptures also.

It appears the Indus people had a fascination with hairdressing and various such styles can be seen, as also in their dress, which again as noted before, suggests that there was a continuity between the Indus Valley art and that of Gandhara and the Mauryan period – as also of the polished stone pillars and stone architecture of palaces at Dholavira (3000BCE) and Dvaraka (1500BCE).

Indus cities also represent the Shilpa Shastras or Indian architectural texts and traditions with it’s layout and measurements, which also shows a continuity of culture also. We also only have the foundations left of the Indus cities and a few walls – as we do of Ashokan and Buddhist era ruins – and we know they were highly decorated, having wooden beams and pillars and elaborate archways and motifs of gold and silver on them as not only the Greeks told us – but also as we see on Ajantan paintings and various Buddhist sculptures of the period depicting these palaces.

Thus, the Indus Valley cities would have been pretty much of the same style I would imagine, going by their foundations and also that wooden pillars were used, as we know stone ones were at Dholavira.

Thus, the later archaeological finds at the end of the Indus period around 1500bce – 500bce in India (or dated back earlier by dates above of tradition) reveal similar styles in mud-brick, brick and stone foundations in various eras and areas of India, as also we see differences of scripts in the Indus, and also the early date of Tamil Brahmi, Ashokan Brahmi and also the mysterious script of the King Bimbisara in Rajgir.

Buddhists used domes for Stupas which created a new style of Indian art and architecture, but this need not be a foreign import, any more than slight changes in culture are. Likewise, the later Sikhs around 1500AD created Gurmukhi, their new script based upon the older Devanagari, for their religious purpose – the same perhaps happened in the Indus Valley and after, and also with kings as Bimbisara and Ashoka for propagating Hinduism and Buddhism.

We notice the variations of Indian scripts in south-east Asia and in India for example coming from Brahmi. We also note how differently the “OM” symbol looks, as also the Swastika is drawn, and yet both are found in the Indus Valley culture.

We also note how just as in India, peoples of south-east Asia have retained more Indic dress style, scripts and cultural traditions more-so than the West has through the Romans or the Latin Peoples! It shows Asia has always been more traditional and non-changing than us.

The Indus people were also a mixed race also, as the Indians are today – resembling Polynesians on one hand and then Europeans to the far North, where they look like your average southern European. To the East they resemble more the peoples of south-east Asia, having also similar strains, as to the far east of India we see pure Mongoloid people resembling the fair-skinned Chinese.

These diverse cultures would have all existed alongside each other, regardless also of religion, which itself changes styles, as we have noted.

That the Indus people traded in the South and with the Maldive Islands and the West, as well as the continuity of their cities also shows some trade-continuity also with later times, as through ports in Lothal in Gujerat down to Roman times where ports in Dvaraka traded with the West and also southern Indian ports also.

We hence see nothing but plenty of clues about the ancient Vedic-Indus civilisation and nothing about a discontinuity of styles, art, language, scripts or culture, and also regions as remote as the Maldives and Southern India as also Central Asia to have been trading with the earliest Indus Valley cities – which continued into later times, showing no such invasion taking place.

We also see that Indians both in the North and South of India both trace their decent from a flood-figure King and Rishis or Seers that arose from the South of India, not from anywhere in Central Asia, and rather migrated north to the Himalayan and Indus Valley regions after the flood.

The literature of India including the historical Puranas, the Epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata) and the Vedas also speak of no such invasions or discontinuity in Civilisation, but rather various migrations out of India, which as noted, continued also in later times with Buddhist Monks, Gypsies etc.

We have also the continuity from as early as 7500BCE of cities in Northern and Southern India, as also Indus writing in the South, and also the early instance of the Brahmi script in the South, showing of two continuous and contemporary cultures of the Indo-Aryans North and their older ancestors, the Dravidians (or perhaps, “Southern Aryans” or “Older Indo-Aryans”) to the South for the past 10,000 years or so.

This seems to reflect nothing but the tradition of India itself, which states that the so-called Sanskrit-speaking Aryans came from the Dravidian King, Manu from older flooded cities in the South and created a newer culture to the North of India, as reflected in the Indus Cities and those on Mehrgarh and the Gulf of Cambay – and also shows of a continuous cultural contact between the two.

It should also be noted that Northern Heros such as Rama the King and Krishna, are both not only celebrated in the South of India – but Krishna’s cousins, the Pandavas and his Epic the Mahabharata, as also his worship flourishes in the South of India, where many temples are associated with them.

This shows no hostility between North and South Indians at any time, nor any invasion, and that the South of India is mentioned in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as Vedic regions ruled by Vedic Kings, and visited by the Pandavas all shows that if anything each culture respected one another and were part of a one culture dating back thousands of years.

In regards to this, we should note that all of the great Hindu reformers – Nimbarkacharya, Shankaracharya (500bce), Ramanuja, Madhavacharya were all Dravidian Saints who restored Hinduism and Vedic teachings to the North, as also Buddhist Monks as Bodhidharma around 500AD took Indian teachings to China and abroad, as did the Kings and Brahmins from the South under the Chola Rule.

This shows it was more South Indians that had a tendency historically to be the ‘Indian Missionaries’ and Invaders to other colonies, especially in South-East Asia, as also their cultivation of Martial Arts (Dhanurveda, Kalari) and it’s cultivation, which also helped them ward off Muslim attacks on their region in later times also.

This hence gives more weight historically to the fact that the Indo-Aryans are descendants of southern older Vedic Dravidian Kings and their Saints, as tradition states, as, as noted, we see history repeating itself with the same influences coming from the south of India to the North of India and beyond (into eastern and south-eastern Asia) in later times also, not from the so-called war-like invading nomads, the Indo-Aryans of the North, who were merely their ancestors and early refugees of the flood cultures!

Footnotes:

1. “The oldest of these is the Hathial area, which yielded surface shards similar to burnished red wares (or 'soapy red wares') recovered from early phases at Charsadda, and may date between the 6th century BCE and the late 2nd millennium BCE.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila

The Gandhara grave culture around 1500BCE-500BCE was also preceeded by an earlier phase of the Indus Valley:

“In the centuries preceding the Gandhara culture, during the Early Harappan period (roughly 3200–2600 BCE), similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments etc. document intensive caravan trade between South Asia and Central Asia and the Iranian plateau” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara_grave_culture

All this shows the continuity of the ancient sites of Gandhara or Takshashila themselves from the times before the so-called Aryan Invasion to later times. That trade occurred in Gandhara as a place between 3200-2600bce shows that this continued in Indus times as in later times, where Buddhists continued contact there. This can only occur if a civilisation had itself been continuous.

AgniIla.htm

8. Wikipedia.